Trying to get a muddy look.

[Kingsguard 358]

I'm trying to go for a muddy look on the feet of my AT-RT but I fear it just looks like camouflage. I am very amature in my painting skill. Any tips?

[Alpha17 2,853]

I'd recommend the Citadel textured paints, either the mud or battlemire.  I've muddied most of my troops and vehicles, and that stuff helped a lot. 

[Deathseed 1,738]

55 minutes ago, Alpha17 said:

I'd recommend the Citadel textured paints, either the mud or battlemire.  I've muddied most of my troops and vehicles, and that stuff helped a lot. 

That and Agrax Earthshade washing can do a fine job of creating dirt effects if you let it pool enough.

[BucketheadBits 107]

Vallejo makes Thick Mud and Splash Mud bottles.  They are full of magic.

[BigBadAndy 640]

First of all, I love the way you have painted the ATRT.  Very cool. And the rest of your forces look great too so I don’t know if I would say you were “very amateur.”  

Second, context is important.  I think your ATRT feet will look muddy if you drop them on a matching base that gives the impression it is muddy.  If I had any advice it’s that the light shade seems too light and too different than the darker brown.  All of the products recommended by others in the bread dina good job but think about basing it and seeing how it looks when you have muddy earth around it.

[BCGaius 62]

As mentioned, basing will help. A suitably "rough" looking base will help the feet blend between muddy ground and freshly-painted green durasteel.

And speaking of freshly-painted, making it not-so-freshly-painted could help a lot too. That AT-RT looks factory-new and polished to parade ground standards, and if that's the look you're going for, great! But it doesn't lend itself as well to a muddy, battlefield look. Weather the rest of the vehicle into a more rugged condition, and the mud will seem more natural around the feet. Chip and fade the "paint" by dappling a flat "unpainted" factory-grey chassis color onto the green areas with a nearly-dry sponge. This gives the impression of the green paint flaking off and exposing the unpainted metal of the vehicle. Further improve this by slathering on ugly washes of blacks and browns, and maybe a dash of metallic steel colors around the worky-bits to create rust, wear, stains, exhaust, etc. I like to dump a bunch of gloss varnish over top of all that on some of the moving parts as well (such as the leg pistons), which makes all the ugly brown staining gleam and shine like lubrication, spilled oil, and engine grease.

Make your vehicle "ugly" enough, and the mud will look right at home!

[Kingsguard 358]

19 hours ago, Alpha17 said:

I'd recommend the Citadel textured paints, either the mud or battlemire.  I've muddied most of my troops and vehicles, and that stuff helped a lot. 

They make texture paints? Huh. I'll have to look into that.

12 hours ago, BucketheadBits said:

Vallejo makes Thick Mud and Splash Mud bottles.  They are full of magic.

Just youtubed those. Lol, looks like he's spreading peanutbutter on his diorama.

10 hours ago, BigBadAndy said:

First of all, I love the way you have painted the ATRT.  Very cool. And the rest of your forces look great too so I don’t know if I would say you were “very amateur.”  

Second, context is important.  I think your ATRT feet will look muddy if you drop them on a matching base that gives the impression it is muddy.  If I had any advice it’s that the light shade seems too light and too different than the darker brown.  All of the products recommended by others in the bread dina good job but think about basing it and seeing how it looks when you have muddy earth around it.

Thanks a lot for the compliment. I am very focused on details and the exact movie colors n stuff but I say amature because I don't know any of the real painting tricks people around here use. Washes and layering and highlighting and so on. I just paint things the colors they are supposed to be. I am still trying to figure out the other tricks the really good painters use.

Have you ever seen mud drying in the hot sun? Often times it ends up with a light tan surface but when you step in it, it's wet and dark brown underneath. That's what I am trying to suggest with the colors. The rain has stopped and the sun is baking the mud but then this AT_RT just came stomping through the drying mud.

My inspiration for the AT-RT comes from the APC in the movie Platoon. I am also a big vietnam war buff so my custom paint jobs are often 1960s inspired. I even was tempted to paint my Rebel Troopers up in close approximation to veitnam war uniforms but decided to go with Urban camouflage pants and jackets instead of the OD green since I am very fond of it and have like 3 pairs of urban camo pants. lol.

 

8 hours ago, BCGaius said:

As mentioned, basing will help. A suitably "rough" looking base will help the feet blend between muddy ground and freshly-painted green durasteel.

And speaking of freshly-painted, making it not-so-freshly-painted could help a lot too. That AT-RT looks factory-new and polished to parade ground standards, and if that's the look you're going for, great! But it doesn't lend itself as well to a muddy, battlefield look. Weather the rest of the vehicle into a more rugged condition, and the mud will seem more natural around the feet. Chip and fade the "paint" by dappling a flat "unpainted" factory-grey chassis color onto the green areas with a nearly-dry sponge. This gives the impression of the green paint flaking off and exposing the unpainted metal of the vehicle. Further improve this by slathering on ugly washes of blacks and browns, and maybe a dash of metallic steel colors around the worky-bits to create rust, wear, stains, exhaust, etc. I like to dump a bunch of gloss varnish over top of all that on some of the moving parts as well (such as the leg pistons), which makes all the ugly brown staining gleam and shine like lubrication, spilled oil, and engine grease.

Make your vehicle "ugly" enough, and the mud will look right at home!

Yeah, I need to think about the base and how to get it to match. I want it to look like it just walked out of a muddy jungle into a wartorn city. I pretty much just painted it today and haven't gotten into the details much. I plan on trying to weather it a bit. Not too much. I want it to look like it was taken care of. But it did just get through a dirty, rainy jungle.

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

Just leave more of the AT-RT color showing through. I'd just paint the AT-RT how you wanted it, then use a toothbrush and your thumb to flick brown dots of paint all over the lower legs/feet. You can use intention to make some areas of the vehicle get more mud than others.

Practice on a sheet of paper first. And maybe on an old toy or something.

In real life, MOST of the mud will stay confined to the feet but not ALL of the mud, so a few stray splatter will be a good thing.

Edited January 19, 2019 by TauntaunScout

[BigBadAndy 640]

34 minutes ago, Kingsguard said:

Have you ever seen mud drying in the hot sun? Often times it ends up with a light tan surface but when you step in it, it's wet and dark brown underneath. 

Yeah, I know what you were going for.  Usually the dried mud is a lighter version of the wet mud - with at least some similarity in terms of color and tone. But sometimes it’s very different.  The problem again is context.  We need to see this pattern on the ground in order for it to make sense in the model. You might also put a wash over it that might tie the two colors together

Sometimes in miniature painting “realism” doesn’t translate all that well. A less realistic scheme that evokes what you are after might produce a better efffect.

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

1 hour ago, BigBadAndy said:

 

Sometimes in miniature painting “realism” doesn’t translate all that well. A less realistic scheme that evokes what you are after might produce a better efffect.

110% . In miniature wargaming realism has to be tempered with context.

One can make a very realistic diorama model, that will look awful on the tabletop. This is because we view the models from many angles and at many distances over the course of a game. Micro Machines, Micro Collection, and other small SW toys used not shading, highlighting, or other special effects yet they are often far more effective art pieces than people's collections of home painted gaming minis. Because they clearly communicate what they need to, to the viewer.

If you are shooting for pure realism, you can't use the "right" colors. You have to use colors that account for how the atmosphere distorts color over distance, which said distance must be calculated based on the scale of the model. So if you don't use properly scaled colors, then make some other part of the model purely realistic, it'll look decidedly off, even if you can't figure out why.

Here's another common example of where attempted realism can clash with scale. Gluing sand to bases and just leaving it there cause it already looks like sand. The sand is the wrong scale compared the mini so it looks weird. Same as trying to make a real cloth cape for a figure. The threads in our cloth are scaled to the size of rope in a miniature, so it ends up being really weird looking cloth.

I used to do this as a kid. I'd paint my metal WEG guys and leave the blasters and some styles of helmets unpainted. Cause they already looked like metal. *cringe*

Edited January 19, 2019 by TauntaunScout

[Kingsguard 358]

Well that's all good advice.

[Kingsguard 358]

I got a little farther on the AT-RT! Painted up the driver. I also bought tiny magnets for the weapon loadout so I can stick on whatever gun I feel like using at the time. I tried to add a blackwash for the first time ever and it turned out alright I think. I'll still put a few more details on like the scratches in the paint which was suggested earlier and the base but I wanted to show off where I am now. 

[BigBadAndy 640]

Looking really good man.  I especially like the details you have added to the guns and to the pistons.  Everybody tends to leave those as a single color or a single color plus a dry brush.  The pistons look cool this way and I actually really like the way you have done the laser cannon.

Rider looks great too.  If you have the patience to pick out all the parts of the helmet and paint them differently you have a bright future in miniature painting.  The camouflage looks great too. I’ve never attempted a camo scheme so I’m impressed.

[Kingsguard 358]

2 hours ago, BigBadAndy said:

Looking really good man.  I especially like the details you have added to the guns and to the pistons.  Everybody tends to leave those as a single color or a single color plus a dry brush.  The pistons look cool this way and I actually really like the way you have done the laser cannon.

Rider looks great too.  If you have the patience to pick out all the parts of the helmet and paint them differently you have a bright future in miniature painting.  The camouflage looks great too. I’ve never attempted a camo scheme so I’m impressed.

Thanks for the praise! It means a lot. I was looking at Battlefront II pictures to try and figure out how it should be painted. Still trying to figure out what to do about the base.

I am also sort of excited to try and paint some troopers up Endor style. I might do one squad in urban camo and one squad matching the strike team from the movie. Hmm...tough call. Part of me wants all my trooper dudes to match...I can be so indecisive when deciding between two things I like. Lol.

[Bohemian73 161]

Nice paint jobs. To me, the feet look more like camo than mud. I totally agree with the comment above about letting some green show through for mud splatters, but less contrast and more gradual for dried mud. I think the mud would dry from the outside in (or vice versa), top surfaces, maybe where the mud wasn't as thick, etc. Where your lighter colors seem inconstant for how the mud dried, I.e. more like camo

Edited January 21, 2019 by Bohemian73

[Jabby 1,042]

WAAAASSHHHHEESSS

[Kingsguard 358]

16 hours ago, Bohemian73 said:

Nice paint jobs. To me, the feet look more like camo than mud. I totally agree with the comment above about letting some green show through for mud splatters, but less contrast and more gradual for dried mud. I think the mud would dry from the outside in (or vice versa), top surfaces, maybe where the mud wasn't as thick, etc. Where your lighter colors seem inconstant for how the mud dried, I.e. more like camo

Yeah, definitely requires further work...

[BigBadAndy 640]

On 1/20/2019 at 11:11 AM, Kingsguard said:

I might do one squad in urban camo and one squad matching the strike team from the movie. Hmm...tough call. Part of me wants all my trooper dudes to match...I can be so indecisive when deciding between two things I like.

Every single unit I have finished painting in Legion, I have ended with the thought “next time I should...” Part if it is a mechanism for accepting the minis I’ve just finished don’t have to be perfect.  Part of it is there are just so many things you can do.

I have painted all my units differently and based them all differently.  This is a deliberate decision to expand my experiences as a miniature painter / hobbyist. Even the Fleet Troopers and Snowtroopers, for whom I painted two units each in the style of the movies, I painted them using different techniques.  I have two styles of snow bases in the snowies.

The point of this ramble is that there is a part of me that wishes I had an entire army on a single unified base.  So there is always something to agonize over.

[Kingsguard 358]

6 hours ago, BigBadAndy said:

Every single unit I have finished painting in Legion, I have ended with the thought “next time I should...” Part if it is a mechanism for accepting the minis I’ve just finished don’t have to be perfect.  Part of it is there are just so many things you can do.

I have painted all my units differently and based them all differently.  This is a deliberate decision to expand my experiences as a miniature painter / hobbyist. Even the Fleet Troopers and Snowtroopers, for whom I painted two units each in the style of the movies, I painted them using different techniques.  I have two styles of snow bases in the snowies.

The point of this ramble is that there is a part of me that wishes I had an entire army on a single unified base.  So there is always something to agonize over.

Feels like

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

12 hours ago, BigBadAndy said:

The point of this ramble is that there is a part of me that wishes I had an entire army on a single unified base.  So there is always something to agonize over.

Clearly, the solution is to buy tons of miniatures, paint them in a unified color scheme, and thus have four armies for a game with two factions. It is logical. You can never have too many small, static-posed, Star Wars guys.

It's pretty much what my stupid Hoth obsession is gonna get me sucked into...

[Alpha17 2,853]

8 hours ago, TauntaunScout said:

Clearly, the solution is to buy tons of miniatures, paint them in a unified color scheme, and thus have four armies for a game with two factions. It is logical. You can never have too many small, static-posed, Star Wars guys.

It's pretty much what my stupid Hoth obsession is gonna get me sucked into...

More or less what I'm doing.  Main army is all muddy for fighting (in my headcanon) on Jabiim or Mimban, while I'm slowly putting together a second Imperial army for cold weather assault.